1. Technical Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to an improvement in a breast pump that is capable of milking and which uses manually or mechanically driven operator structures or means, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Breast pumps having a horn-shaped milking portion with an enlarged diameter that is brought into contact with the breast of a mother, or in other words an enlarged-diameter milking portion, are widely used.
In a well-known constitution for ensuring that the milk, which is formed into a mist by negative pressure generated during milking, does not leak out, a recess is provided in an upper end of a breast pump main body or the like and a deformable member such as a diaphragm is housed in the recess.
More specifically, in a well-known manual breast pump disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,850, operating means such as a handle are connected to the diaphragm, and as a result of the reciprocating motion of the handle, the diaphragm is repeatedly pulled upward, thereby forming negative pressure.
Several other breast pumps having similar constitutions to the breast pump of U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,850 are known, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,582, WO2003/013628, WO2004/000390, and so on.
In another well-known breast pump (see U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/039330), a recessed portion is provided on the handle side and a diaphragm is housed in the recessed portion. As a result, negative pressure is transmitted through an air passage extending from the breast pump main body side.
In a well-known breast pump described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,638, a cylinder is disposed in an upper portion of the breast pump main body, and a cup-shaped diaphragm is disposed and sealed in the cylinder. The diaphragm is deformed by negative pressure from a machine or the like, and as the diaphragm deforms, the internal pressure of the breast pump main body turns into negative pressure.
However, in these breast pumps, backflow milk and mist-form milk may infiltrate the recess or recessed portion housing the deforming portion such as the diaphragm.
Meanwhile, since a breast pump is used to extract milk to be fed to an infant or the like, it should be possible to clean the breast pump easily and thoroughly following milking when milk or the like infiltrates the recess or recessed portion so that the breast pump can be used hygienically.
In this case, the operating means for applying human or mechanical force to the diaphragm or other deforming portion, which take the form of a lever or the like, for example, can be structured such that they can be attached and detached easily during cleaning and prevented from becoming detached when attached.